Total Forgiveness - Part Two

Our Friday Devotion is part two of Total Forgiveness from Council Member, Kim:

I wanted to continue our devotion from my last one on Total Forgiveness…..I hope these pointers will help you as they sure have shown me a lot of clarity that I needed in my own life……….

1. Be honest with yourself about bitterness. One way we walk in darkness is by holding bitterness in our hearts towards others……bitterness that creates confusion in our minds and oppression in our hearts. You may say Oh but I am having fellowship with God……..no you are NOT. You just claim you are having it but if there is bitterness in your heart and we claim to have fellowship with God but walk in darkness guess what folks…..we are lying.

2. Face your faults first. The cause of fault finding or meddling is the plank in our own eye that we cannot see. The plank is the sin in us. It is what makes us so eager to point the finger rather than to forgive. We can not begin to work or the forgiveness of others if we have not dealt with our own issues first.

3. The art of forgiving and forgetting (whoosh this one is a tough one)…….Love keeps no record of wrongs….1 Cor. 13:5. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him….not to recount the wrongs of a loved one is to do for that person what God does for us DAILY. Choose not to recognize their sin. When we totally forgive someone we too refuse to keep a record of their wrongs. (This one really spoke to me because I never thought about God forgiving me ALL the time yes I know he does but just stop and think about that for a few minutes…….how many people in your life right now should you be forgiving ?)

4. Let go of a record of wrongs. Love is a choice. It is an act of the will. You have to control your tongue. Forgiveness is a choice. Our whole lives are made up of choices. (I could have chosen to be bitter and hate him or I could have chosen to forgive…….one thing that I can share from my heart is that when you can come to a place to forgive from your heart it is so freeing…..if you don’t experience this freedom then maybe you did not forgive) God said if you don’t forgive from the heart, forgiving everyone you will not be forgiven. (I don’t want this on my life).

5. Forgiving ourselves means to experience the love that keeps no record of our own wrongs. I know God forgives me but I can’t forgive myself. Why don’t we forgive others? May be anger, with ourselves. He doesn’t want us to be angry with ourselves for our sins. Not forgiving ourselves in self hatred.

6. Sin that has been confessed to God is totally forgiven by Him and any guilt we feel after that is pseudo guilt.

7. You must keep destroying the record of your sins everyday. Right when it happens just stop and say to God I am sorry forgive me……..don’t wait till that evening because what if you forget…..we need to speak our sins aloud to God I don’t believe you should say God forgive me for sinning today (maybe that works for some) but for me……I have to speak what I did and ask God to forgive me.

8. Not forgiving ourselves is a subtle way of competing with Christ atonement.

Learning how to forgive myself and others daily……...Lord your will be done in my life…….
Kim Caldwell

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